Nazir Lababidi avoids jail for role in buying, selling luxury 4WDs over Facebook Marketplace with odometers wound back

A car fraudster “duped” innocent people into buying luxury 4WDs through Facebook Marketplace, winding back the odometers and pocketing more than $160,000 in profits, a court has been told. Nazir Lababidi was supported by his family and friends as he was sentenced at Brisbane District Court for his role in the “organised” group that ripped off innocent motorists by “dishonestly” inflating the cars’ values. Lababidi, 40, was considered the “public face” of the group and was actively involved in selling the 4WDs. Despite the Crown asking for a three-year jail term, District Court Judge Michael Byrne opted not to send him back to prison. “But you are going to be on a long leash for the next three years,” he told Lababidi. The former panel beater instead walked from court with a two-year suspended jail term hanging over his head. Lababidi pleaded guilty to more than 28 charges on Tuesday, including 10 counts of fraud. His other charges included contravening an order about a device, breaching bail, driving unregistered and uninsured, driving without a proper registration plate and calling an approved number and requesting a conference call. The court was told Lababidi used Facebook Marketplace to “buy and onsell” Toyota HiLuxes, acting as the “public face” of the organised fraud group. Crown prosecutor James Bishop said Labididi either wound back the odometers of the vehicle himself, or was aware the odometers had been wound back, to dishonestly inflate the value of the luxury 4WDs. The cars were advertised with these false readings, Mr Bishop said. Five cars were sold between December 2021 and towards 2022 – the number of kilometres being wound back varying on each car between 160,000km and 300,000km. Mr Bishop said Lababidi pocketed between $14,000 and $21,000 in profits as a result. The court was told Lababidi was charged and released on bail under orders to “not engage in buying, selling or trading vehicles”. But between April and May 2023, he sold more cars in similar circumstances. “The difference for what he bought the vehicles for and what he sold them for vary between $7500 to $19,000,” Mr Bishop said. “(This offending) erodes public trust in conducting private transactions, involving the sale of vehicles.” The court was told the overall difference in the purchase and sale prices of the 4WDs was about $163,000. No restitution had been made to the victims. When police twice searched his house in 2022 and 2023, Labididi refused to provide the PIN code to his phone despite police having a warrant requiring him to do so. Lababidi’s charges of calling an approved number related to jailhouse calls to his wife, where he instructed her to dial another prisoner into the call. The court was told Lababidi was acting as a “good Samaritan” because that prisoner had run out of money to use the phone. Labididi’s other traffic offences related to police surveilling him and finding he was driving uninsured and unregistered cars. One had fake number plates attached. Lababidi’s barrister Saul Holt KC said his client had held down solid employment since the charges were laid. He was working six days a week, up to 12 hours a day to support his family, he said. The court was told Lababidi was subject to “significant pressure” to continue his work with the organised group. Mr Holt said his client’s bail conditions had been onerous, including a strict curfew and no access to social media, but there had been no recorded breaches since 2023. He described Lababidi’s three months in pre-sentence custody as a “true wake-up call”. “The difference before then, and the difference after then, has been profound in terms of the way he has chosen to pick up his life,” Mr Holt said. References were tendered attesting to Lababidi’s good character. Judge Byrne noted the Crown was unable to determine the overall net profit to the organised group due to the overall improvements being unknown. “There’s certainly no remorse until the time of your release from pre-sentence custody,” Judge Byrne said. He took into account the early pleas, imposing a head sentence of two years’ jail, suspended after three years.